The Big House: A Hoax?

[crzykillernut]

Something I came up with while bored at work. Its just for fun. here it goes.



The size of 'butt space' in the stadiums was discussed in another thread, but I feel the results truly deserve a thread of their own.

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Quote: <hr>Thats funny cause Michigan fans love that their stadium holds the most. They take as much pride in that as they do their helmets or thier history, itself. Whever Tennessee moves their figure up, Michigan does it, too. <hr>

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I'm telling you its the simple truth. Michigan Stadium isn't as "Big" as it's seat count. The average seat size at the Big Bowl is 17 inches. I had trouble coming up with the Ohio Stadium number. I left a message at the Athletic Facilities department, and Mike is supposed to call me back. However, I did find one article which mentioned Ohio State wouldn't be upgrading seat size during the renovation, and it would stay at 18inches. Obviously both 17 and 18 inches are too small, considering the amount of space you take up while sitting is determined by the widest point of your body, in most cases the shoulders, not the butt/hips. For shoulder width, men average 21.5, women 19.2, neither would fit comfortably in 17 or 18inch seats as everyone will partially be in the seats next to them. But, that's neither here nor now.

Lets do some estimated number crunching.

If Michigan upgraded to 18inch seats, their capacity could drop from 107,501 to 101,528 -- a drop of 5, 973 seats. This is smaller than OSU's capacity of 101,568. However, we know both stadiums almost always exceed the listed capacity, so it'd be a toss up as to which stadium had more people in it each week, IMO.

Michigan has a press box, but no luxury suites as of yet, so I'll leave these numbers be. I'm also not going to factor in 'largest crowd' (111 for mich, 105.5 for osu) because the data could get murky.

If Ohio Stadium reduced it's seat size to 17 inches, we'd go from 101,568 to 107,542. Michigans 17inch capacity is 107, 501, once again making the horseshoe 'bigger' than the 'big' house. To be fair, however, there are 1,062 seats in the luxury suites. So lets remove them from the data. If i don't count the luxury suites when I convert the total seats, but add them in afterward (1062 seats are 1062 seats, regardless of size) I'd get 107480 seats, putting us 21 seats under um's count.

One more tweak I can make, although this would would require removing those club seats and putting in benches.
We have 2500 club seats on the side of the stadium, along the 50 yard line. Going off of the aforementioned site, most club seats average 19 inches. So, if those were removed, and changed to the UM-size 17 inch space as well, factoring that change back into the original forumla, accounting for the luxury seat factor,that would add an additional 2794 seats, taking the grand total to 107,627.

So, here's the final results.

If stadium seat size was equal:

18 inch seats:
OSU: 101,568
UM:101,528

17 inch seats
OSU: 107,627
UM: 107,521

If our roles were reversed (OSU 17inch, UM 18inch)
OSU: 107,627
UM: 101,528

So does that make us the Big Shoe?

[X Buckeyes07 X]

My dad has the priviledge of working side-by-side with a scUM grad, and she goes to a lot of the football games, and said that people are always standing practically sideways because of how much they pack it in.

[smithlabs]

Originally Posted by X Buckeyes07 X

My dad has the priviledge of working side-by-side with a scUM grad, and she goes to a lot of the football games, and said that people are always standing practically sideways because of how much they pack it in.

Better than being bent over because of how much they pack it in

[MililaniBuckeye]

Just because they can cram a few more thousand people total into the Le Bowle Toilet Grand doesn't make it a better venue.

[rocketman]

Just out of curiosity, didn't the 03 Michigan game set a record of some sort? It must have been a little over 112,000.

[Brutus1]

You must have really been bored!

I could have saved you alot of valuable work time by telling you it's landfill waiting to happen.

[IronBuckI]

9:45 PM and scUM still sucks. Sometimes as much as 18 inches.

[horseshoe1]

When the state of Michiggggan needs an enema the hose goes in at AA.

Nuff said!

[FadeproofBuck]

I talk with a guy from time to time about college stadiums, he has no University affiliation but love college football, and overall has gone to 75 games in 30 different stadiums.

While he claims that the best atmopshere he's ever been in was at Samford stadium for the Georgia-Florida game a few years, he does say that the Horseshoe is right up there with the best atmosphere to catch a game.

I asked him if he's ever been to the Big House to see a Michigan game, he said yes against Notre Dame 4 years ago and I quote him that he said this about Michigan fans "I never knew 107,000 fans could be so quiet."

[Zurp]

Originally Posted by X Buckeyes07 X

My dad has the priviledge of working side-by-side with a scUM grad, and she goes to a lot of the football games, and said that people are always standing practically sideways because of how much they pack it in.

I've heard that, too. I've heard (from scUM students) that for some games they were so packed in that they stood sideways, crammed against each other, and if they picked up their feet, they wouldn't fall down - they were packed too tightly.

That sounds like an exaggeration, to me. I don't believe it. But I have no desire to be crammed sideways with who-knows-who right behind me.

[BB73]

si.com

Big House redesign draws complaints

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- A $226 million plan to renovate Michigan Stadium by adding luxury boxes and other upgrades is renewing complaints that the stadium lacks sufficient seating for the disabled.

Continued ...

[sandgk]

Originally Posted by BB73

si.com

Big House redesign draws complaints

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- A $226 million plan to renovate Michigan Stadium by adding luxury boxes and other upgrades is renewing complaints that the stadium lacks sufficient seating for the disabled.

Continued ...

Well as some of the disabled folk in the stadium are wearing headsets, on the sideline, they don't need seats?